a DIACHRONIC study of the IMAGE of the POWERFUL FEMALE in POPULAR (and maybe other) CULTURES
New 52 Supergirl might not have been memorable as a character, but she did start off her short career clobbering her super-cousin.
Most Old West fillies were content to let the men do all the fightin' against owlhoots, but Nita from CRACK WESTERN #75 gets into the fracas pretty substantially.